PB097: How To Lift the Quality of Your Blog Posts with Embeddable Content

Tips on Taking Your Blog to the Next Level With Embeddable Content

Note: this episode can be listened to in the player above or on iTunes or Stitcher.

Today I am talking about an opportunity to lift the quality of your blog posts using embeddable content. I also list a heap of resources for finding great embeddable content, and deciding which resources to use.

Using embeddable content is a great opportunity to lift the quality of your blog. Many bloggers take it for granted and overlook using it, but this content can increase the quality of your work. It will potentially serve your readers better and even help your blog to rank higher in search engines.

I was recently asked to help judge a blog contest by my friend Michael Stelzner from Social Media Examiner. The blogs that stood out to me were ones that were using embeddable content to really make the posts dynamic.

This is something that is often done on social media blogs and blogs about blogging, but there is a real opportunity to take advantage of this concept on blogs in other niches.

Last week, I was speaking at a conference in Sydney, and this concept was fresh in my mind, so I produced this slide on the 17 types of embeddable content.

Reasons Why Smart Use of Embeddable Content Can Lift Content Quality

It lifts the usefulness of the content

This content can appeal to different learning styles and personality types

Plus it shows your readers that you are willing to go the extra mile

It can also add other voices, opinions and experiences to your blog

It increases page time – gives you more time to create an impression and build your brand

Page time also helps with SEO – longer page time is a signal to Google to rank higher

17 Types of Embeddable Content

Video – YouTube etc. easiest and best way to add audio and visual

Slides – Slideshare easy way to turn list post into slide deck

Tweets – Every tweet can be embedded in a blog post

Facebook – posts, status updates, videos and images

Audio Files – Anchor – file to quickly put thoughts out and reply

Cartoons – Andertoons

Live-Streaming or Replays – Periscope, Blab

Instagram – Pictures and videos

Slideshows – Flickr and from other photo sharing sites

Infographics – Infogr.am

Bookmarks – Pinterest and pins

Google – Maps or Google Earth

Polls and Quizzes – Qzzr

Mindmaps – MindMeister

Google – Docs, forms and PDFs

Podcast – Podcast players

Animated Gifs – GIPHY

You can create or curate embeddable content. I challenge you to create one blog post this week that uses embeddable content. Share your post links in the comments below or share any other ways you use to create this content.

Before you publish your next blog post, ask yourself these questions:

What can I create or curate that will add value

Make sure it is useful quality content

Don’t over do it. One or two embeds are fine, you don’t need 20

Think about what additional content would enhance the topic

You could also start with a piece of embeddable content and put it into a blog post and add to it. It becomes the “hero” of the topic. You can also curate and summarize someone else’s content with further reading etc.

Thanks for yet another inspiring podcast. In my post that went live today i embedded a YouTube video of a tutorial that my son and I tried. I documented with photos of our process and used the video to support our content. http://bitzngiggles.com/kids-squeeze-ball/

Awesome tips on Embeddable content. All 17 forms of Embeddable content are very actionable.

I have used a couple of them listed above, like Slideshare, JobsRoll API, infographics, docs, and YouTube. The ones I think I can take advantage of are audio files, animated gifs, bookmarks, and polls and quizzes. I hope to implement those on my site http://daderonan.com soon.

Thank you for sharing your insights Darren. I greatly appreciate it.

Ann-Marie

What is Anchor? Is this a service or a new social media platform? Thank you for your time, I really enjoy all of your podcasts.

Ranee Boyd Tomlin

This was a fascinating podcast and sparked my passion for creative and credible curating. However, I would appreciate further discussion of how to handle giving credit and requesting permission when using others’ content.

Thanks Darren for another great podcast and the fabulous list of embeddable content. I tend to use YouTube videos simply b/c they’re so easy to embed and had never thought to look beyond that. I’m definitely looking into adding more ways to add audio. I had just published a post yesterday with an embedded video: Part 2 How To Satisfy A Serious Gardener’s Itch But You Live In An Apartment (how’s that for a long title!): http://tinyurl.com/z6w83uc

Thank you for this both reminder and prompt to explore many of these other forms of content! When I profile amazing women I’ve tried to remember to look for a video of their type of airplane at takeoff, and just started pulling out their key lessons learned to put into a separate “mission checklist.” But here are fifteen more types of content to try, and I can’t wait Thank you!

I embedded an old video that I recorded when I was Lille France and a instagram vid. Darren, you are heaven sent to newbie blogger like me. I just let your podcast playing on my pc while I’m doing something else. hahaha

Another great podcast. The topic of embedded content has made me rethink how I create my content. I actually got excited about all the different types of embedded content that I could add. Thanks again for making me a better blogger. Here is a small post I created http://www.thegoodlifesamurai.com/jim-rohn/.

Devon Lee

I haven’t embedded anything yet as I was working on revising old content, setting up a social media scheduler, and getting my email list going. However, I finally have a handle on the three, for now, and I’m looking forward to implementing these in future posts. Thanks for the wonderful variety of ideas.

Sarah Murphy ND

Wow, this has given me a whole new way to create interesting and informative content for my readers. I’ve taken your advice Darren and created this post about Keanu Reeves and controversial views on health. http://bit.ly/1r1yQKX I included a Facebook post, some sound cloud audio AND a youtube video! Epic advice!